Thanksgiving is still a few weeks away, but it's a good time to start planning your turkey and football regimen, thanks to a pair of proclamations on this date. Prior to the 19th century, Thanksgiving had no set occurrence, and basically happened whenever the government thought it was a good idea. The Continental Congress had declared days of thanksgiving during the colonial period, and George Washington continued that tradition by proclaiming the first national Thanksgiving 225 years ago on October 3, 1789, in a signed declaration marking that November 26 as "a day of public thanksgiving and prayer" for the young country. Washington waited six years before declaring another Thanksgiving in 1795.

After that, the holiday became as fluid as a plate of congealed gravy. John Adams declared two Thanksgivings, Thomas Jefferson declared none (supposedly believing the holiday blurred the distinction between church and state), and James Madison declared two in 1815 alone…but neither was in the fall. Some states started declaring their own Thanksgivings, with Southern states recoiling at the holiday's New England Puritan overtones.

This messy state of affairs prevailed until 1863, when Abraham Lincoln signed a declaration 151 years ago on October 3, setting aside the fourth thursday of November for Americans to express thanks for recent victories in the Civil War. (Presumably, this went over no better in the South than the Puritan celebrations had.)

From there, Thanksgiving found its annual home on November's final Thursday, until Franklin Roosevelt tried to goose holiday shopping during the Great Depression by moving it to the next-to-last Thursday of the month from 1939-1941. (It was considered poor taste for retailers to advertise Christmas wares until after Thanksgiving.) This irritated enough people that 1939 was said to be the year of two Thanksgivings, with "Republican Thanksgiving" honoring Lincoln's memory on November 30, and "Democratic Thanksgiving" sticking with FDR's plan on November 23.

In 1941, Congress finally nailed the holiday down, but they actually split the difference between Abe and Frank. Instead of returning Thanksgiving to its traditional final November Thursday, they set the holiday on the fourth Thursday of November, which is where we find it today. There were some holdouts in years when November had five Thursdays, with Texas holding its own Thanksgiving as late as 1956. As a bred Southerner, I'm just glad we finally got on board at all.

(Image source: http://media.salon.com/2013/11/lincoln_thanksgiving-620x412.jpg)